The Malmesbury teenager arrested in an FBI-tipped raid for ordering American children to sexually abuse themselves and mutilate animals struggled so badly at school that a psychometrist recommended he be excused from writing his third-term exams that year.
His performance that year – 2024, when the report was compiled – was dismal, his marks in key subjects halving in a single term.
Afrikaans dropped from 75% to 49%, English from 86% to 43%, maths from 66% to 23%, natural science from 74% to 20% and digital technology from 76% to 16%.
The psychometrist recommended he be tested for autism, that he repeat Grade 8 and be taught in English rather than Afrikaans, his home language.
The report, seen by IOL, formed part of the state’s papers in the case, which included a request for the 16-year-old to be examined by a district surgeon.
He is due back in the Malmesbury’s Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
The teen – whose identity is known to IOL, but who may not be named as he is a minor – was arrested at an upmarket golf and country estate on Monday and appeared in court for the first time the next day.
The secure residential estate is built around an 18-hole golf course, with a clubhouse, private homes and controlled access at a boom gate.
The arrest was led by the police’s national serial and electronic crime investigations team, supported by the head office occult unit, the Paarl family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, the Paarl K9 unit and the Western Cape crime scene investigation unit.
Agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US embassy also attended.
Violent extremist network
National police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Amanda van Wyk said the operation followed intelligence from the FBI, the US embassy and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
“The intelligence indicated that a target, suspected of being linked to violent online networks commonly referred to as ‘764’, was believed to be located in South Africa,” Van Wyk said.
It is understood he worked from a corner of his bedroom, at a desk holding two screens, a mechanical keyboard, a gaming headset and a studio-style microphone on a stand, with a cellphone propped up beside them, a gaming chair pulled in and LED strips glowing pink along the wall and red under the desk.
The teenager faces 11 charges linked to 764, made up of seven sexual offences, two counts under the cybercrimes law and two of animal cruelty.
764 is an online network the FBI described as a violent extremist network associated with child exploitation.
It is known for targeting children online, coercing them into sending explicit pictures of themselves, which are then used to blackmail them into performing and videoing sexual acts, acts of self-harm and of harming animals.
Eleven American children aged between 11 and 17 have laid complaints against him.
Fear of failing
The psychometrist recommended further evaluation by a specialist in neurodevelopmental disorders “to explore the possibility of comorbidities such as autism spectrum disorder”. .
“He currently feels overwhelmed with the curriculum and is reluctant to attend school.”
At the time of the assessment, he was already struggling badly at school, and it was recommended that he be excused from writing his third-term exams that year.
The psychometrist wrote down what he said about the classroom.
“He reported a fear of failing the year and what the other learners will think then.
“His attention wanders off during class especially when the teachers talk in Afrikaans.”
He told her he followed English more easily than Afrikaans, and that he battled to take in about 80% of the content in a subject such as biology.
Asked about his memory, he answered in Afrikaans that he could not remember things well.
“He describes his academic performance referring back to grade 4, when he last felt confident about his abilities,” the report read.
“It sounds like the transition from home schooling to mainstream is a challenge.”
A psychiatrist saw him at the end of August 2024 and completed a psychiatric assessment.
Ritalin was tried for three weeks earlier that year, but was stopped after it worsened his anxiety and made his hands shake.
He had been in and out of psychotherapy for four or five years, and his psychologist had recorded a history of bullying during his primary school years.
By the end of 2024, he was no longer attending school and was being taught at home on an American curriculum.
Online gaming hobby
It was not the first time he had been out of the school system.
He attended a primary school from Grade R to Grade 4, then spent three years being homeschooled again, using a US-based syllabus.
He returned to the classroom for Grade 7, but lasted only two terms at a local high school before stopping and being homeschooled again.
The report also detailed how he was spending his time instead.
“He currently likes learning Russian as a third language and enjoys online gaming,” it read, adding that there was a theme of learners “making him feel self-aware and uncomfortable at school.”
Testing put his verbal reasoning in the borderline range, his non-verbal reasoning in the average range and his overall score in the low-average range.
His reading speed in Afrikaans was about four years behind, his spelling about four years behind, and his handwriting speed 40% slower than a boy his age was expected to manage.
His weakest single score was on a memory test, which the psychometrist read as forgetfulness and distractibility.
She stopped short of diagnosing a learning disorder, finding he did not meet the full criteria because his schooling had been broken up and he had moved between languages and systems.
What she did do was press for one more set of tests, and she listed her reasons.
“Significant discrepancy between verbal (borderline) and non-verbal abilities,” the report read.
“Possible sensory overload in school environment.”
The other reasons she gave were low scores on abstract reasoning and short-term memory, his reluctance to go to school, and the anxiety his medication had brought on.
She recommended he repeat Grade 8 in 2025, move to English, stay in psychotherapy, and be helped through it at home.
“In the light of his ADHD and anxiety diagnosis, additional time is advised,” the report said of his exams.
“With his significant delay in handwriting speed, he might benefit from typing on a computer.”
The alleged offences began 17 months later, in January this year.
IOL visited the estate on Wednesday, two days after the arrest.
A security guard called the boy’s parents from the gate, and came back with a message that they did not want to speak.
He said the couple had left shortly before.
Nobody else at the estate would talk about it.
One resident said the arrest had been “extremely dramatic”.
The state said it needed to go further than the 2024 report before it could determine whether he was fit to stand trial.
The matter is back in court on Thursday.
IOL